---
title: Sui Client PTB CLI
description: The Sui Client PTB CLI enables a user to construct a PTB and execute it from the command line or a file.
---

The `client ptb` command allows you to specify the transactions for execution in a programmable transaction block (PTB) directly from your CLI or through bash scripts.

## Commands

The following list itemizes all the available args for the `sui client ptb` command. Use the `--help` for a long help version that includes some examples on how to use this command.

```
Build, preview, and execute programmable transaction blocks. Depending on your shell, you might have to use quotes around arrays or other passed values. Use --help to see examples for how to use the core functionality of this
command.

Usage: sui client ptb [OPTIONS]

Options:
      --assign <NAME> <VALUE>
          Assign a value to a variable name to use later in the PTB.
           If only a name is supplied, the result of the last transaction is bound to that name.
           If a name and value are supplied, then the name is bound to that value.

          Examples:
           --assign MYVAR 100
           --assign X [100,5000]
           --split-coins gas [1000, 5000, 75000]
           --assign new_coins # bound new_coins to the result of previous transaction

      --dry-run
          Perform a dry run of the PTB instead of executing it.

      --gas-coin <ID>
          The object ID of the gas coin to use. If not specified, it will try to use the first gas coin that it finds that has at least the requested gas-budget balance.

      --gas-budget <MIST>
          An optional gas budget for this PTB (in MIST). If gas budget is not provided, the tool will first perform a dry run to estimate the gas cost, and then it will execute the transaction. Please note that this incurs a small
          cost in performance due to the additional dry run call.

      --make-move-vec <TYPE> <[VALUES]>
          Given n-values of the same type, it constructs a vector. For non objects or an empty vector, the type tag must be specified.

          Examples:
           --make-move-vec <u64> []
           --make-move-vec <u64> [1, 2, 3, 4]
           --make-move-vec <std::option::Option<u64>> [none,none]
           --make-move-vec <sui::coin::Coin<sui::sui::SUI>> [gas]

      --merge-coins <INTO_COIN> <[COIN OBJECTS]>
          Merge N coins into the provided coin.

          Examples:
           --merge-coins @coin_object_id [@coin_obj_id1, @coin_obj_id2]

      --move-call <PACKAGE::MODULE::FUNCTION> <TYPE_ARGS> <FUNCTION_ARGS>
          Make a move call to a function.

          Examples:
           --move-call std::option::is_none <u64> none
           --assign a none
           --move-call std::option::is_none <u64> a

      --split-coins <COIN> <[AMOUNT]>
          Split the coin into N coins as per the given array of amounts.

          Examples:
           --split-coins gas [1000, 5000, 75000]
           --assign new_coins # bounds the result of split-coins command to variable new_coins
           --split-coins @coin_object_id [100]

      --transfer-objects <[OBJECTS]> <TO>
          Transfer objects to the specified address.

          Examples:
           --transfer-objects [obj1, obj2, obj3] @address

           --split-coins gas [1000, 5000, 75000]
           --assign new_coins # bound new_coins to result of split-coins to use next
           --transfer-objects [new_coins.0, new_coins.1, new_coins.2] @to_address

      --publish <MOVE_PACKAGE_PATH>
          Publish the Move package. It takes as input the folder where the package exists.

          Examples:
           --move-call sui::tx_context::sender
           --assign sender
           --publish "."
           --assign upgrade_cap
           --transfer-objects sender "[upgrade_cap]"

      --upgrade <MOVE_PACKAGE_PATH>
          Upgrade the move package. It takes as input the folder where the package exists.

      --preview
          Preview the list of PTB transactions instead of executing them.

      --serialize-unsigned-transaction
          Instead of executing the transaction, serialize the bcs bytes of the unsigned transaction data using base64 encoding.

      --serialize-signed-transaction
          Instead of executing the transaction, serialize the bcs bytes of the signed transaction data using base64 encoding.

      --summary
          Show only a short summary (digest, execution status, gas cost). Do not use this flag when you need all the transaction data and the execution effects.

      --warn-shadows
          Enable shadow warning when the same variable name is declared multiple times. Off by default.

      --json
          Return command outputs in json format.

  -h, --help
          Print help (see a summary with '-h')
```

## Design philosophy and concepts

The main philosophy behind the CLI PTB support is to enable a user to build and execute a PTB from the command line. Bash scripts can be used to construct and execute the PTB just as you would do from the command line, providing great flexibility when it comes to automating different tasks.

Besides using existing [traditional PTB](/concepts/transactions/prog-txn-blocks/) related concepts, we introduce a few new and important concepts for this command.

:::warning

All the following examples were tested using a `bash` shell environment and your experience may vary depending on how your shell interprets the input values (e.g., zsh requires to pass values in brackets by adding quotes around it: "[]"; bash accepts them without quotes).

:::

### Types

Sometimes, CLI PTBs require that you specify the type of a value or variable. For instance, in the following example you must provide the `<u64>` type when calling the `0x1::option::is_none` function.

```shell
sui client ptb \
--assign my_variable none \
--move-call 0x1::option::is_none "<u64>" my_variable \
--gas-budget 50000000
```

To pass in multiple types, delimit them with a comma:

```shell
...
--move-call package::module::function "<u64,u8,u256>" \
...
```

### Strings

CLI PTBs support string literals as inputs, which will be encoded as pure values that can be used as inputs to `vector<u8>`, `std::ascii::String` and `std::string::String` parameters. The following example previews a transaction block that passes the string `"Hello, world"` to a function `m::f` in a package `$PKG` (its ID is held in an environment variable).

```bash
sui client ptb --move-call "$PKG::m::f" '"Hello, world"' --gas-budget 10000000 --preview
```

:::warning

Double-quoted string literals tend to also be valid syntax for shells (like `bash`), so when inputting PTBs on the command-line, remember to wrap the entire string in single-quotes so that its double-quotes are interpreted literally, as in the previous example.

:::

### Addresses and Object IDs

{@include: ../../snippets/address-prefix.mdx}

Here are some examples for `transfer-objects` and `gas-coin`:

```bash
sui client ptb --transfer-objects [ARRAY_OF_OBJECTS] @0x02a212de6a9dfa3a69e22387acfbafbb1a9e591bd9d636e7895dcfc8de05f331 --gas-coin @0x00002819ee07a66e53800495ccf5eeade8a02054a2e0827546c70e4b226f0495
```

### Assign

Use the `--assign` argument to bind values to variables. There are two ways you can use it:

- assign a value to a variable
- assign a variable to the result of the previous command

Let's look at the first case where you assign a value to a variable. You want to check if some variable's value is `none`. Call the `0x1::option::is_none` function from the Move standard library, and pass in the variable name:

```bash
sui client ptb \
--assign my_variable none \
--move-call 0x1::option::is_none "<u64>" my_variable \
--gas-budget 50000000
```

:::tip

CLI PTB uses name resolution for common packages like `sui`, `std`, `deepbook`, so you can use them directly instead of their addresses: `0x2`, `0x1`, or `0xdee9`.

:::

In the second case, if a previous command outputs some result, you can bound it to a variable for later access. Let's see an example where you want a new coin with 1000 MIST, which you can achieve by using the `split-coins` command. After you do that, you want to transfer the new coin to another address. Without the `--assign` argument, you couldn't instruct the CLI to transfer that new coin object as you would not have a way to refer to it.

```bash
sui client ptb \
--split-coins gas [1000] \
--assign coin \
--transfer-objects [coin] @recipient_address \
--gas-budget 50000000
```

:::tip

If you build a complex PTB, use the `--preview` flag to display the PTB transaction list instead of executing it.

:::

## Examples

The following examples demonstrate how to use the `client ptb` command.

:::tip

When a PTB is executed, the output contains all the relevant information (transaction data, gas cost, effects, object changes, and so on). Use `--summary` to get a short summary when you do not need all the data. For complex PTBs, you can use `--preview` to display the PTB transaction list instead of executing it.

:::

### Move call

When needing to execute a Move call, use the `--move-call` transaction to call a specific function from a package. The CLI PTB supports name resolution for common packages like `sui`, `std`, `deepbook`, so you can use both `0x1::option::is_none` as well as `std::option::is_none` for passing the function name.

```bash
--assign A none
--move-call std::option::is_none "<u64>" A
```

To call a specific function from a specific package, you can use the following call:

```bash
--move-call PACKAGE_ADDR::MODULE::FUNCTION "<TYPE>" FUNC_ARG1 FUNC_ARG2 ...
```

### Publish

Publishing a package is one of the most important commands you need when working with Sui. While the CLI has a standalone `publish` command, PTBs also support publishing and upgrading packages. One main difference is that with `sui client ptb`, you must explicitly transfer the `UpgradeCap` object that is returned when creating a package, or destroy it with a call to [`make_immutable`](/concepts/sui-move-concepts/packages.mdx). Here is an example on how to publish a Move project on chain using the `sui client ptb` command. It makes a call to the `sui::tx_context::sender` to acquire the sender and assigns the result of that call to the `sender` variable, and then calls the publish command. The result of `publish` is bounded to `upgrade_cap` variable, and then this object is transferred to the sender.

```bash
sui client ptb \
--move-call sui::tx_context::sender \
--assign sender \
--publish "." \
--assign upgrade_cap \
--transfer-objects [upgrade_cap] sender \
--gas-budget 100000000
```

### Split, destroy, and merge coins

The following example showcases how to split a gas coin into multiple coins, make a move call to destroy one or more of the new coins, and finally merge the coins that were not destroyed back into the gas coin. It also showcases how to use framework name resolution (for example, `sui::coin` instead of `0x2::coin`) and how to refer to different values in an array using the `.` syntax.

```bash
# Split off from gas
--split-coins gas [0,1,2,3]
--assign coins
--move-call sui::coin::destroy_zero<sui::sui::SUI> coins.0
# Can further split a split coin (and through variable bindings/result accesses)
--split-coins coins.1 [0,0]
--assign zcoins
# Destroy both new coins
--move-call sui::coin::destroy_zero<sui::sui::SUI> zcoins.0
--move-call sui::coin::destroy_zero<sui::sui::SUI> zcoins.1
# Can merge the split coins back
--merge-coins gas [coins.1, coins.2, coins.3]
--gas-budget 10000000
```

### Transfer objects

This example creates three new coins from gas and transfers them to a different address.

```bash
--assign to_address @0x02a212de6a9dfa3a69e22387acfbafbb1a9e591bd9d636e7895dcfc8de05f331 \
--split-coins gas [1,2,3] \
--assign s \
--transfer-objects [s.0, s.1, s.2] to_address \
--gas-budget 10000000
```

:::info

You can also pass an alias (without the '@') instead of an address.

:::

## Reserved words

You cannot use the following words for variable names:

- `address`
- `bool`
- `vector`
- `some`
- `none`
- `gas`
- `u8`
- `u16`
- `u32`
- `u64`
- `u128`
- `u256`

## JSON output

Append the `--json` flag to commands to format responses in JSON instead of the more human-friendly default Sui CLI output. This can be useful for extremely large datasets, for example, as those results can have a troublesome display on smaller screens. In these cases, the `--json` flag is useful.
